Devil Effect

Twitter account used to be @EffectDevil

[tocc0]

[otakunews01]

"Kagurabachi" upcoming TV Anime first 20 minutes of Episode 1 will screening at Anime Expo 2026 on July 3

Air Date: April 2027

Young Chihiro spends his days training under his famous swordsmith father. One day he hopes to become a great sword-maker himself. The goofy father and the serious son--they thought these days would last forever. But suddenly, tragedy strikes. A dark day soaked in blood. Chihiro and his blade now live only for revenge.

[reaperraksh]

I'm jealous of all of you peeps who can attend these

[lazy-sixteen]

you know if anything this chapter made me think:

Chihiro and Chiaki really do have extremely similar personalities/parallel suffering+response ->

they both start their stories separated from a happy, if slightly unconventional family (primarily represented by Kunishige).

Are pushed by death+disaster towards a duty they really don't want and depersonalize themselves to cope with (Chiaki burning kuni's letters and living as an unfeeling 'Princess'/political tool, Chihiro considering himself a monster who is going to hell), and,

feel an extreme sense of guilt and responsibility to make up for tragedies they aren't responsible for (the war and Irishima talks for Chiaki, the destruction caused by the Enchanted Blades and Hishaku for Chihiro) by sacrificing themselves

Like Chihiro "I am going to use myself as a lightning rod/let myself get impaled by a million pieces of paper/fight people I know are stronger than me/kill people even though I hate violence" is operating on the same selfsacrificial mindset as Chiaki, "I'll cut contact with the person I love /i'll volunteer for essentially torture and death"

basically,

Let's be passively suicidal with mama

Jokes aside,

Even Chiaki's panel of childish admiration for the previous Princess Soga (and reminiscence to how she treated Chiaki nicely 'taught her to make tea') is similar to Chihiro's childish admiration for Samura (who also treated him nicely and served him tea), before they grew up to be pushed into the roles of the people they admired and be forced to acknowledge their harsh reality

[saaraofthesand]

hakuri and chihiro get married on hakuri's 18th birthday shiba officiates hinao is their witness char is flower girl and this event immediately kills azami

[lazy-sixteen]

no wait i lied, there more, the other thing 123 makes me appreciate after watching Chiaki get repeatedly used a tool, is the emphasis part 1 had on Chihiro refusing to see/treat anyone as anything but a person

He gives up several chances to go after Kuregumo to focus on saving Char, because her life if more important than his vendetta

He gives up Enten to save Hakuri's life, because even when Hakuri was 'powerless' he was still worth more by being a good person than the most valuable object in the world to Chihiro

Basically ignores all three sides of a 3 way stand-off btw the government, the Hishaku, and Samura to ask Iori (who everyone else is treating like a living Mcguffin) what She Wants to Do and deliberately makes it an informed decision and lets her know he will support her no matter what

EVEN The Very First Chapter - Chihiro gives up a lead on the Hishaku to focus on saving a nameless small town and unnamed background extra

Anyway, thematically, Chihiro (who for his father and Samura explicitly represents a brighter future) not just wanting to save people, but having an overwhelming respect for their autonomy makes sense.

Especially as so much of the confrontation with Akemura at end of Part 1 is triggered by Yura and the Kamunabi longing to go back to the past because it seemed more orderly, but it sucked, it always sucked it just didn't suck for them specifically (See noteable human trafficker Kyora cosy with the government, its why 2 out of4 of Japan's best sorcerers are orphan teens raised to kill/torture/die for their country/its why chiaki's at risk of getting sold off/hiyuki's about to go to war as a fetus)!!

Its just the people dying back then had their lives written on/swept under the rug by the people in power to maintain their illusion of power - but if Part 2 is about anything it's about how idealizing the past (either before the war, or the Soga with their 'heroic past'/divine heritage or the Mikaboshi king who seems to be prioritizing revenge over his citizens actual concerns) isn't the way to go.

[hakuhro]

happy pride month to my favorite bisexual disaster hakuri sazanami !!! and also every other character in kagurabachi

[cookiekat130]

at least anime season 1 will be really really reeeeaaaally good :hakurinsmile:

[devileffect]

Y’know, if all of part 2 just end with it being absolutely awful with no redeemable qualities

At least I only bought all of part 1

[ultfreakme]

Chihiro and Hakuri being gay and in love with each other would actually be thematically enriching for Bachi, because they both come from families which have discarded people for the sake of preserving an oppressive system. They both did this through sorcery; the prophecies for the Soga, the Storehouse for the Sazanami.

It's pretty clear that the women in these families are seen as little more than objects. Women are expected to give birth to powerful sorceries.

Chihiro as he is now is already emblematic of how that has been broken with the Soga clan. Kunishige and Chiaki definitely had him without permission from the Kamunabi or the Soga.

Chihiro and Hakuri breaking ALL the chains of traditions. Like come on it's right there.

[machii05]

How the Kamunabi expecting infant Hiyuki to pull up against the Mikaboshi

[cookiekat130]

Kiri: It's pride month, Hakurin. You know what that means

[hwashitape]

the Three of Swords, the Lord of Sorrow.

[devileffect]

Y’all’s criticism of this chapter and Chiaki’s writing is valid in the way that it does have misogynistic undertones and that it could be utilized better, but acting like it wasn’t set up by presenting both the Soga clan and the Mikaboshi as very eugenics-based patriarchy

Is kinda dumb

[snalsupremacy]

Kagurabachi takes place in a fictionalized version of Japan that dares to ask the question "what if guns didn't exist and eyeliner lasted forever" and that's why it's peak

[devileffect]

Low-key whoever came up with the idea that chiaki was a deadbeat mom was cooking

[devileffect]

Please be a deadbeat mom Chiaki I will take anything as long as you are still alive and well and NOT a fridged woman

[naarinn]

Kagayrabachi